GAZA CITY — Over 740 starving civilians have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid near distribution sites run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Gaza since the controversial foundation began operations in late May.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Saturday, 743 have been killed and 4,891 other injured by Israeli forces across Gaza while searching for food near or at GHF sites.
More than 39 others are still missing after heading to these sites, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organizations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians.
An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report in May warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.
After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
Most humanitarian organizations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques.
The UN also confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.
According to a Haaretz report last week, conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered forces to shoot at crowds waiting for food near or at the US-backed GHF aid sites to drive them away or disperse them, despite posing no threat.
“It’s a killing field,” one soldier said. “Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.”
On Monday, the Israeli military admitted that its forces “harmed” Palestinian civilians at US-Israeli aid distribution centers in Gaza. The army claimed new field instructions were issued based on “lessons learned.”
More than 130 charities and NGOs called last week for the closure of the controversial Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
“Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” their statement said.
“Orphaned children and caregivers are among the dead, with children harmed in over half of the attacks on civilians at these sites.”
The aid organizations said GHF “is not a humanitarian response” for the Gazans.
“Amidst severe hunger and famine-like conditions, many families tell us they are now too weak to compete for food rations,” the groups said.
Palestinians in Gaza and the UN described these sites as “mass death traps” and “slaughterhouses”.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that “weaponizing aid in this manner may constitute crimes against humanity.”
“Every day Palestinians are met with carnage in their attempts to receive supplies from the insufficient amount of aid trickling into Gaza,” MSF said.
The commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the “lethal” US-Israel aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. In a post on X, Lazzarini indicated that Palestinian lives “have been so devalued”.
“It is now the routine to shoot & kill desperate & starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries,” he said.
“Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable. This is a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the US-backed aid distribution mechanism is “inherently unsafe” and “it is killing people.”
“Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,” Guterres told reporters.
Guterres said UN-led humanitarian efforts are being “strangled,” aid workers themselves are starving and Israel, as the occupying power, is required to agree to and facilitate aid deliveries into and throughout the Palestinian enclave.
“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters.
On Wednesday, an investigation by the Associated Press confirmed that American security contractors guarding Gaza aid sites are using live ammunition, stun grenades, and pepper spray against starved Palestinians. It also revealed that Israel is using the so-called aid centers to collect intelligence and that security personnel deployed in Gaza appear to have an open license to do whatever they want.
Amnesty International has described the group’s operations as an “inhumane and deadly militarized scheme”.
“All the evidence gathered, including testimonies which Amnesty International is receiving from victims and witnesses, suggest that the GHF was designed so as to placate international concerns while constituting another tool of Israel’s genocide,” Amnesty said.
C. QNN
